WatchMatt Berninger unveils ‘Serpentine Prison’

Announcing that he’s got a debut solo album set for release on 2nd October, The National’s Matt Berninger has unveiled the title track, ‘Serpentine Prison’.

“The song ‘Serpentine Prison’ was written in December 2018, about a week after recording The National’s ‘I Am Easy to Find’,” Matt explains. “For a long time, I had been writing songs for movies and musicals and other projects where I needed to get inside someone else’s head and convey another person’s feelings. I liked doing that, but I was ready to dig back into my own garbage and this was the first thing that came out.”

“The title is from a twisting sewer pipe that drains into the ocean near LAX,” he continues. “There’s a cage on the pipe to keep people from climbing out to sea. I worked on the song with Sean O’Brien and Harrison Whitford and recorded it about six months later with Booker T. Jones producing. It feels like an epilogue, so I named the record after it and put it last.”